soricel

Write a love letter to fandom. It might be to fandom in general, to a particular fandom, favourite character, anything at all.

This one was a little tricky for me, because I don't really consider myself part of "fandom," aside from the fact that I write/read the occasional fic or something, and while I've found a lot of other people's responses to this prompt sweet, touching, and inspiring, I also found them a little difficult to relate to. But like I've mentioned before, it's been gratifying to explore this world little by little, and I think I'll continue to do this year. I'm really grateful to have found a place to explore/express some ideas and feelings and share them with others. Maybe if this prompt comes up again next year, I'll have more to say. :)

The main thing that came up when I thought about this prompt though is that I feel grateful for a lot of the things I've read, watched, and listened to as a result of my tentative explorations of fandom world. Specifically, I feel like for the past couple years, I've been specifically seeking out media and literature that features types of male characters I haven't seen in the things I typically read and watch. Without getting into a whole thing about it, I have a lot of negative feelings about men, and the parts of myself I consider "masculine," and I've been trying to find male characters I find relatable or lovable so that I can maybe connect to these parts of myself in a more loving way, if that makes sense. Writing fics about these characters has made me feel closer to them and also to the parts of myself that they remind me of, and which I feel like I'm starting to look at with a little more fondness and compassion. I don't think I would have found some of these characters if not through some of my explorations of certain canons and fics that I learned about by poking around here and there in fandom world, and yeah, I'm really grateful for that.